Telecommunications is a rapidly evolving industry that has exploded into the market in recent years with all types of mobile communications devices and systems. The advent of the Internet and its vast EP (Internet Protocol) capabilities has opened the door for telecommunications to find ways of providing services that heretofore were not available to the cellular user. The use of mobile devices such as cellular telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and handheld computers is growing at rates that greatly exceed even the most optimistic predictions of only a few years ago. Cellular telephones have been widely accepted because they are inexpensive and allow individuals to move about freely yet stay in contact with friends and sources of entertainment. Other mobile devices like those that play and record music or moving pictures, for example, also have been widely accepted because they provide entertainment and allow individuals to have fin.
Mobile devices are used throughout the world by individuals of all ages but they are especially popular among individuals that embrace “pop culture” trends and lifestyles. The pop culture appeals to a large segment of the population, especially among youth, and is readily accepted throughout the world. Music and moving pictures that are recorded and distributed by professional sources is an important part of the pop culture. There is, however, a growing interest by individuals to download from music vendors or create their own aural or visual content and then share it with friends. Unfortunately, creation and distribution of aural and visual content like music and motion pictures has required the use of devices that are not portable or cannot be carried as easily as a cellular telephone.
The telecom industry is currently shifting towards all-IP systems, driven by the fundamental need to reduce costs, create new revenue generating services and to protect the operator business model, and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is a new core and service domain that enables the convergence of data, speech and network technology over an IP-based infrastructure. It is the operator choice of control and service logic for EP packet-based communication. For users, IMS-based services enable communications in a variety of modes that include voice, text, music, pictures and video, or any combination of thereof in a highly personalized and secure way. IMS is designed to fill the gap between the existing traditional telecommunications technology and Internet technology that increased bandwidth alone does not provide, and allows operators to offer new, innovative services that share holders and end users are expecting.
Music store websites provide music download capabilities which are accessible via the IMS capabilities. A subscriber can access a WAP (wireless application protocol) page on phone, and purchase music, and send music to a computer. Thus, favorites such as music and video can be streamed to the listener on a device or requested for download and then downloaded to the device. However, there does not exist a system with the capability to bring everything together where the subscriber can listen to music on the radio, identify it via a live connection with the mobile device, tag it for later purchase, and actually have that music on the connected mobile device.